One Week
by StreakingHerculobus
Summary: Captured through the sole efforts of his mother, Danny must weather a week under her scrutiny. Can he keep his secret without endangering his life? Phantom experiment fic
1. Day 1

**I don't own Danny Phantom or the characters.**

Phantom floated in a cylinder tank. The walls were composed of the transparent material High-Density-Polyethylene-ectoplasm (HDPEEP), which according to Jack could contain a level 10 ghost for decades. Needless to say, the current occupant had no hope of scratching the surface. In addition, the plastic had a high melting point and would lose none of its structural integrity should the temperature get too low, so climate tests were feasible and scheduled for tomorrow at ten o'clock.

Maddie bent over the desk and picked up her clipboard. She had already decided to focus primarily on the psychological aspect of Phantom due to his reputation as one of the more intelligent and talkative of ghosts. Previous specimens were very one-dimensional and too unaccustomed to interacting with humans for a comprehensive analysis. Her preliminary report based on her observations since its arrival in Amity Park noted the apparent craving for attention most likely born of neglect when "he" was alive. Workaholic parents perhaps?

One of the few adolescent ghosts in existence, it certainly acted the part which begged the question: is a ghost's ultimate form determined by its prior human appearance or did their former personality play a larger role?

She jotted down on the paper the date, time, and her first impression of its continuing adjustment to the new environment.

_[June 4-0004 hours into detainment] Surprisingly calm considering its captivity, though in the very beginning exhibited signs of depression. Very practical in its exploration of the container; tested the barrier once with an energy blast and then accepted the reality of its imprisonment. However, such little resistance could be an effort to lower my guard for an escape attempt later on._

Checking the monitor she confirmed standard atmosphere; about the same amount of nitrogen, oxygen, and argon as at sea level was being circulated through the cell. The subject's toleration to various gases was scheduled to be tested tomorrow as well.

Thus far Phantom had remained respectfully quiet while she prepared, but evidently even the dead ran out of patience. "Um, you're not going to rip me apart molecule by molecule, are you?" He massaged just above his collar bone as if concerned for the future of his neck.

Under normal circumstances she would never dignify its question with a response. That was Jack's department. However with him in Washington D.C with Jazz, the task of communicating with the subject fell into her lap. In addition, the quality of the data depended on how much it opened up, so for the next seven days she would need to engage in conversation at the very least. Lamenting how tiresome that was going to be, she pursed her lips. "Not this week. I cannot promise anything after that."

As if a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders, he shot into the air, visibly happier. Flying in circles he let loose a "Woohoo!" before finally coming to a halt, face pressed against the wall. "Thanks."

Puzzled by his exuberance, she placed a hand on her hip. Relief would be an understandable reaction. A celebration indicated either it was very easy to please, or it failed to grasp that vivisection was not entirely ruled out. In fact Jack had mentioned dissection a couple times.

Phantom was unique. That much she was sure of from how comfortable it was around people. Whether the differences ranged below the skin, they would eventually find out.

"Weeeeeel, what are you going to do first?"

She scrunched her eyebrows. As evidenced by its childish behavior, Phantom seemed unaffected by the various instruments—most of which were lethal to ghosts—strewn about the lab. Despite its disadvantaged position, Phantom seemed confident even. "A few non-invasive questions. Think of it as an interview."

"Yes! I always wanted to be interviewed, though the Fenton thermos might have been a little extreme. All you had to do was ask." Phantom did a backwards flip and landed on his rear, criss-cross-applesauce style. "Don't get me wrong. I'm grateful for the opportunity. It's just I don't like being caged for long periods of time."

Maddie couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. In the past she noticed its fondness of sarcasm, but to what lengths did Phantom go? "Let's begin with your activities in Amity Park. What do you personally believe you are accomplishing?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm taking down the bad guys, the ghosts who interfere with our lives. I know sometimes it doesn't look that way, but my efforts are the only thing between us and chaos.

She highlighted where Phantom associated himself with humans. "Are you aware of your transition into a ghost?"

"Are you asking if I remember how I died? I admit it's kind of fuzzy." (For a moment Maddie swore he looked guilty.) "But I recall this overwhelming heat. I couldn't move or think; too much pain. Electricity I believe. An accident. My fault." He trailed off towards the end.

Shocked to death? She confessed that must have been tragic for the family. The ghost before her, on the other hand, just happened to be formed from the residual consciousness of the victim, a consciousness contaminated and perverted by trace amounts of the toxic compound Lithium Nonacarbon, more commonly known as ectoplasm, in the environment. Nevertheless, this was a tremendous breakthrough. None of the other specimens could account for their passing.

"Are you more at ease around humans or others of your kind?" Maddie leaned in closer in anticipation. If Phantom admitted to preferring the company of people, then it posed a greater threat than she originally imagined.

Phantom looked uneasy. With a hand on the back of its head, it chuckled nervously. "Seeing as how most ghosts don't like me, I'd say humans. But it's not like I stalk them or anything. Humans tend not to attack me." Realizing its failure to take into account ghost hunters, Phantom amended its statement: "For the most part."

Her fears were confirmed. Phantom was addicted to human contact which would explain why the ghost went to such great lengths to "save" people. Ultimately, its role as protector was nothing more than a scheme to garner attention. Of course she couldn't be certain at this point. There was always Jasmine's theory about territory.

"In that case, would you say the ghost zone is less than an ideal place to reside for one in your position?"

"Duh. I mean, have you seen the place? Not exactly the warmest of homes. Plus everyone knows me, so I couldn't hide for long."

Strange. She knew she was deviating from the carefully thought out script, but this was an interesting line of questioning. "Why are they so hostile to you?"

Phantom froze and refused to meet her gaze. "No reason," he said unconvincingly. "I'm a little different, that's all. Can we move on?"

Was it something Phantom did? It was rare for a group to discriminate against one of their own members without a substantial cause. "No, I think that's enough for today."

Exhausted Maddie decided to continue the interview in the morning. Turning off the lights and ignoring Phantom's indignant shouts, she wished Danny a lot of fun camping with his friends.

**This is an experiment. I felt really compelled to write some Danny Phantom, so I did. Thanks for reading. If either Maddie or Danny seem out of character let me know so I can work on it. I'm thinking about doing a day 1, day 2...kind of thing. It depends.  
**


	2. Day 2

**I don't own Danny Phantom or the characters.**

Just because Danny had an ice core, it didn't mean he could not feel cold. When the temperature dropped below negative 150 degrees Celsius, he was bound to feel a little chilly. He stole a resentful glance at the pipes in the ceiling through which liquid nitrogen was being pumped. Acting as cooling coils, the pipes possessed small holes which served to leak the liquid and allow it to evaporate once coming into contact with the warmer atmosphere of the container. Naturally, oxygen was also being injected into the container seeing how nitrogen reduced O2 count. At this point it wasn't certain whether ghosts required the same gases as humans to survive, so Mrs. Fenton wasn't taking any chances.

Danny wrapped his arms around his body. His bones ached, and his muscles were almost unresponsive. His shivering a ceased a good five minutes ago and his heart beat loudly in his chest. Where was he again? He failed to recognize the place. He attempted to stand, but his knees gave out halfway up. He noticed a woman leaning over a desk. "Hey! You told me we'd eat at the café yesterday. Don't you keep your word?"

Maddie straightened and looked at Phantom. What in the world was he talking about? She checked the temperature gauge: -159 degrees Celsius. Impressive, but not surprising. Ghosts should be able to tolerate such low temperatures since their range of safe body temperature was much larger than a human's. Ectoplasm, the fluid necessary for ghostly life, had a much lower freezing point than water (blood), so it took longer for the substance to be affected by cold external conditions.

"My sister would give you a piece of her mind if she knew what was going on here!"

Yes, he was definitely acting odd. Maddie stepped up to the container and observed his behavior more closely. He seemed very sluggish and quite confused. In fact, his skin had turned slightly blue, and his pupils had dilated. Her eyes widened in realization. Hypothermia. But that shouldn't be possible.

"Can we please order fries and a drink?"

Nevertheless, she could argue the science later. Right now she had to warm Phantom up. Jotting over to the controls she cranked the lever up to neutral. The influx of nitrogen shut off and thermal coils in the floor of the tank turned on. Phantom seemed to notice since he promptly hugged the floor with his entire body. It went through all the stages of recovery, which Maddie made sure to write down in her notebook: chattering teeth, color change, and even goose bumps. The process took five minutes. By the end Phantom was looking much better, though not completely untouched by the recent trauma. Mistrustful of the ceiling he squatted low on the floor. "You're not going to do that again?" he asked with a hint of anxiety.

"No. I actually had a breakthrough. Hypothermia suggests the presence of internal organs that depend on kinetic energy, i.e. motion, to operate. In that respect you are remarkably similar to humans."

"Tell me about it." Phantom rolled over on his back and put his hands behind his head as if relaxing.

Maddie frowned. That was an odd thing to say. Was it insinuating that there were more ways in which it paralleled humans? At this point, anything was possible. Phantom had already thrown out many of her initial theories concerning its existence, and the laws that proved true for other ghosts never fully applied to it. In fact, Phantom was in a completely different category. The only other ghost she hypothesized that could fit in with Phantom was the Wisconsin Ghost, which she had very little opportunity to study. A good deal more powerful than Phantom, it looked less inclined to remain a minor nuisance if introduced to Amity Park. From what she gathered, the entire western state was its territory.

Phantom's voice shook her from her reverie. "You know what I haven't had in a long time? A bag of chips. Would you happen to have one upstairs?" The ghost had abandoned its restful pose and stood near the wall, pleading with puppy dog eyes. Maddie was irked by how it employed the same technique her son often did when he wanted something. In fact, they looked so related right now she had about left for the pantry by force of habit before catching herself. "Ghosts don't need food."

"Maybe not, but I have taste buds you know. I've tried junk food before, and it was the greatest stuff of my life. So pretty please?"

There went those big sad eyes and that pout again. Maddie sighed and resolved to do something later about this guilt which motivated her to actually fetch it some Doritos. Seriously, Phantom was just a ghost and not her son. She wasn't obligated to do anything for it.

Returning from her kitchen, Maddie placed the bag in the shoot and pressed the button. Hopping with glee, Phantom snagged the bag as soon as it shot into the container. He tore into the bag and then looked up, the orange powder smeared on his cheeks. "Thanks!"

It was actually kind of cute.

Stop.

What was she thinking? At this rate, she and Phantom will be sitting by the campfire singing Kumbaya together. Personal feelings affected judgement, and judgement is critical when dealing with such an intelligent ghost. A stark realization settled upon her. Phantom had planned this. It was acting this way for a reason. The moment she let her guard down, the moment she became its friend, Phantom would strike. After all, it had managed to fool the citizens of Amity Park on several occasions. Jasmine was completely brainwashed. It was only a matter of time before she too fell under Phantom's spell. Well, Madeline Fenton was not going to let that happen. Not on her life.

Sick of Phantom's pleased expression, she jacked the lever which operated the thermal coils to the maximum setting. Time to turn up the heat.

**Danny accidentally let something slip. Luckily Maddie brushed it off as the confusion caused by hypothermia. I shall continue to include as much science-ey stuff as possible in order to distinguish this story from others. In the process I shall include my own theories about ghosts and Danny's halfa status.**


	3. Day 3

**I don't own Danny Phantom or the characters.**

"What the heck are you doing here?" Exasperated Danny threw his hands in the air. "Aren't you supposed to be terrifying the town or enslaving my friends right now? I thought I would at least find peace this week away from ghosts!"

Ember pointed a finger at him. "Hey, it's not like I asked to be caught. I was minding my own business playing a concert when you're mo—"

"Shhh!" Danny placed a hand over Ember's mouth. "You're going to give away my s-e-c-r-e-t." He checked to see if Maddie was listening. Nope. His mother was currently bent over some test tubes on the far side of the lab. She had dumped Ember into the tank, and then proceeded to work on some other stuff.

Ember shoved him off her. "She can spell y'know. Why do you even why bother keeping it a secret. It'd be a lot less trouble if you just went ahead and told her. If you had, you wouldn't be in this situation." Growing more and more irritated Ember ripped out some of her ghostly hair which grew right back. "I wouldn't be stuck in a ten-by-ten foot cube with you!"

Danny crossed his arms. "I'm not happy about it either. Look, why don't we just call a truce for the duration of your stay. When we get out, we can go back to being enemies." He extended a hand of temporary friendship.

"Yeah right, dipstick." Ember sashayed her ponytail behind her head and turned up her nose. I'm going to pretend like you don't exist and I'd appreciate it if you did the same."

Danny looked confused. "You want me to pretend like I don't exist?"

Ember was about to blow a gasket. "I don't feel like hearing your smart mouth right now!"

Maddie could hear the two ectoplasmic entities quarreling, an unexpected reaction to be sure. She found it strange that their argument hadn't turned physical yet. Ghosts after all were predisposed to violence. Diplomacy is impossible for such a volatile conscious ruled by baser instincts. It was very rare to find a specimen capable of executing reason. Placing down the chemicals, she opted for her notebook on which she had written the results of yesterday's temperature experiment.

_[Subject although expressing extreme discomfort could endure temperatures in excess of two hundred degrees. At that point its ectoplasm began to melt, forming puddles on the floor. Recovery required turning the thermostat back down to freezing temperatures.] _

Maddie automatically frowned at the memory of the boy's dripping face like he was figure made of wax. The sight disturbed her deeply and had convinced her to lay off the heat.

Then that night walking home from the grocery store she heard a concert going on in the park. To her astonishment, a ghost, though very well disguised, was the main attraction! So she put her bags down and retrieved the thermos she had on her at all times and did what every sensible ghost hunter would do. Captured her right on stage in front of hundreds of teenagers. In hindsight she should've known they wouldn't have been very happy about it. Her hair still reeked of spoiled tomatoes.

As she approached the container, the chatter of the ghosts died down and both turned to look at her. The girl couldn't hold her tongue. "So you finally decide to finally pay attention to us. I have a question. How does an old woman like you fit into that outfit? It's kind of shameful, if you ask me."

Phantom suddenly seemed upset. "How dare you speak to her like that? I'm right here!"

"Phantom," Maddie interjected. "I don't need you defending me." That is most peculiar, she thought. "As for the lady, I must question her clothing preferences. According to my son, Gothic is out." (Except in that pretty Sam Manson's case, she added silently.)

"Oh, he did, did he?" She faced Phantom with less than an agreeable intent. "What else has your son said that concerns beautiful rocker musicians?"

"That doesn't concern you ghost. Now, I believe you go by Ember. For the purposes of the interview, you shall be referred to as subject number two."

Ember looked shell-shocked. "W-what? I'm a celebrity you hag! How dare you call me that?"

Phantom appeared to be laughing it up. When he finally calmed down and Ember's protests died down, Maddie began, "I have a few questions. Please answer them truthfully, or I will have to resort to… unspeakable methods."

Ember scowled and reluctantly nodded. "Get this over quick. What's the first one?"

"Why are you and supposedly the rest of the ghost zone so hostile to Phantom?"

"Easy. He's not one of us. Next." She sounded bored.

Danny on the other hand was troubled. He leaned over and whispered into her ear, "What do you think you're doing? You're going to give away my secret."

"No whispering!" Maddie commanded. "What do you mean by that, Number Two?

Ember rolled her eyes. "Exactly what I said. He's not one of us. He came from somewhere else. He doesn't live in the ghost zone. I doubt he could in the first place."

"Are you trying to ruin me?" Phantom blurted.

Ember shrugged. "Relax; I'm not going to give it away. If she wants to know, I'm sure she'll figure out some way to wrangle the truth from you. Right, Mrs. Fenton?" Ember smiled evilly, and Danny picked up on what she was trying to accomplish. And guessing from the look on his mom's face, she was successful. Danny was screwed.

**Decided to mix it up. Experiment ideas are hard to come by.**


End file.
